Optical fibers are one of the most important new media for modern communication to provide very high speed, long-span transmission of information. The fiber optics industry has exploded as the Internet and telecommunication field have created a skyrocketing demand for broadband, high-speed pipelines to carry data. Long-span fiber optic networks of a few hundred kilometers carrying bandwidth ranging from 40 to 50 gigabit per second have been widely deployed. Also, fiber optics plays a very important role in connecting local area networks of 500 meters to 2 kilometers, such as connecting one building to another building. The largest growth area for high-speed fiber optics, however, is connecting distances of less than 300 meters for a wide variety of purposes, including connecting computers within a room and linking routers, switches, and transport equipment. In this sub-300 meter or short-distance market, it is more economical to utilize a parallel fiber optic link to meet the ever-increasing transmission bandwidth requirements. The parallel fiber optic link typically involves a fiber ribbon cable with multiple fibers that connects a multi-channel optical transmitter and a multi-channel optical receiver, also known as parallel optical transmitter and receiver.
A critical aspect of manufacturing low cost, easy-to-use and efficient (i.e., low loss of light) parallel optical transmitter and receiver modules is to package the optoelectronic array devices that transmit and receive light streams to and from the optical fibers. Optoelectronic devices are sensitive and/or susceptible to temperature, humidity, and other environmental hazards due to the complexity and fabrication limits of these devices, which contribute to majority of the failure in the transmitter and receiver modules. In the current design of parallel optical transmitter and receiver, however, the optoelectronic array devices can be typically tested after the whole module is assembled. This causes the difficulty of rework, very high material cost if the part fails, and lack of effective in-line process diagnostic techniques during manufacture. Moreover, the burn-in process, which stabilizes the array device performance and screens out “infant failures,” is usually conducted at the module level, which requires more complex test setup and longer burn-in time, and further increases the manufacturing cost.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to improve reliability of the parallel optical transmitter/receiver modules by using a hermetically or near-hermetically packaged optoelectronic device. In addition, there is a need to provide a more efficient method to manufacture optical transceiver, transmitter, and/or receiver modules so that the method and apparatus are suitable for mass production.